I'm disappointed with my order - I love the older version but the new one is not as good

July 15, 2014

Comments: I knew that Matzuo was changing the style of the NanoPopper to a new version (see the Bream and Sexy Shad for the new style with a smaller mouth, humped back, and feathered rear treble hook)
The older version (pictured for the Frog, Chrome Blue and Shiner) was my absolute favorite lure. I've caught hundreds of bass fishing this version when the may flies come out here in the south.
I tried the new version, but it just doesn't fish the same way and I've gotten no where near the number of hits that I get when I simply tie on an old one.

Comments: I have vacationed 1-2 times a year on the same lake in Canada. We usually go up in August or September for a number of reasons (lack of insects for one especially later in summer). For the last 10+ years, there has been a "hatch (if you will) of small yellow perch, that are just about 2 inches long, maybe a bit smaller. The humps in the middle of the lake come up far enough off the bottom to allow Milfoil to come up from the bottom, out to about <15feet. The yellow perch gravitate to these humps in large schools and the smallmouth bass hang by the humps, feasting on the young of year perch. Just about anytime of day you can see smallies busting the schools of young perch. We've had luck in past years with various popers but NOTHING like the Matzuo Nano popper in BREAM color...!!!! There have been times that we averaged over 100 smallmouth bass a day on these poppers. Early mornings usually find bigger fish and the occasional monster pike, which has caused me to lose about a dozen lures in just the last two years. There is NO DOUBT in my mind that the hackle on the back DOES make a difference. Some of the poppers come without the hackle - inconvenient, but no big deal. Just go buy some cheap fly tying tools, with some hackle fixings, make the treble hooks to the same size and you are good to go. I am ordering another 8 of these poppers for this years trip. Light spinniing tackle, with light line, or even some 2# test Spider Fushion as we cast great distances due to how clear the water is, and HANG ON..!! Sometimes we don't even need to pop them on top..!! Biggest smallie to date on one of these was last year on the last day, I nailed a 4#14oz smallie on 2# test Spider line, 5 foot rod, what a HOOT...! Took me forever to get this big smallie to the boat.. Good luck, grab 'em while you can. I keep 12 of the bream and 12 of the chrome blue in my tackle box...!